This video lecture introduces the concept of generic programming, focusing specifically on generic methods. It explains the motivation behind generic methods, which is to write code that can operate on different data types without needing to be rewritten for each type. The lecture covers the syntax for declaring generic methods, how to handle parameters, and demonstrates examples like a generic print method and a swap method. It also discusses methods with a variable list of arguments, explaining three approaches: using arrays, ellipses, and the object class.
<T>) which signifies that the method can accept arguments of any type....), and the Object class, allowing for greater flexibility in method invocation.Object class in Java serves as a superclass for all other classes, making it a versatile type for accepting any kind of data in generic methods.The generic swap method differs from traditional overloading by significantly reducing code duplication.
With traditional overloading, if you wanted to swap, for example, integers and floating-point numbers, you would need to write separate swap methods for each data type. This means duplicating the same logic multiple times, just with different parameter types.
In contrast, a generic swap method is written once using a type parameter (like <T>). This single method can then be used to swap values of any type (integers, floats, strings, custom objects, etc.) without needing to rewrite the core swapping logic for each type. The compiler handles the type-specific instantiation.